ICED EARTH — Plagues of Babylon (review)

ICED EARTH — Plagues of Babylon album cover

Album · 2014 · US Power Metal

4/5 · 2014-01-27
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Plagues of Babylon (2014) is either the eleventh or twelfth full-length studio album, depending on whether one counts covers album Tribute to the Gods, by US power metal act Iced Earth. Like with all Iced Earth releases Plagues of Babylon features a different line-up to its immediate predecessor, Dystopia (2011), although this is actually the first time for some years that the group has hung onto the same vocalist for two consecutive albums, in Stu Block. Plagues of Babylon also features some guest vocal talent cropping up including Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and Russell Allen (Symphony X). Half of the album is related to main man Jon Schaffer's Something Wicked saga, while the rest is standalone songs, including a cover of Jimmy Webb's Highwayman.

Although the cover art looks more like it belongs to a death metal record, it's pretty much accepted what an Iced Earth album is going to sound like by this point; US power metal mixed with traditional heavy metal along with some thrash metal elements, and Plagues of Babylon is no exception. The only real difference across the previous three albums was what the vocalist sounded like. Being a vocalist in Iced Earth seems to be a tough position, in regard to winning over the fans. I remember it wasn't that many years ago when Tim Owens had a stint with the band and people complained that he was too different from the band's iconic long-time frontman Matt Barlow. I also recall that when Stu Block took over (from Barlow's brief second tenure) people moaned that he was too like Barlow. The Barlow or die mentality that seems to surround the band is a shame, because while the actual comments on what the two guys sounded like weren't inaccurate, in my view out of Iced Earth's most recent five studio albums (including Plagues of Babylon), the one Barlow was actually on, The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 (2008), was the weakest of the lot, including vocally. I can't say that Stu Block's performance on Plagues of Babylon is going to be winning over those naysayers this time either, quality though it is to my ears and exactly what I expect to hear from a singer in Iced Earth.

Plagues of Babylon is something of a step down compared to Dystopia though, but it's still a quality work representative of Schaffer and his current bunch of cohorts doing what they do best. Or at least the first half of the album is. This is why I can't help but consider Plagues of Babylon to be one of the lesser Iced Earth releases; inconsistency. This is overall another solid bunch of songs but with the exception of Cthulhu the second half of the album fails to pack the same sort of punch as the generally top quality first; the punch I expect from an Iced Earth album and what Dystopia never failed to have. On the first half it's only really The Culling that doesn't stand out as a highlight. Tracks like Democide, Among The Living Dead and The End? are all excellent work while the title track and Resistance aren't that far behind.

This may be a slightly unfair assessment, as the second half of the album does include two cover songs. Although with the first, Spirit of the Times, it's kind of like Jon Schaffer cheated; this song was originally by his solo project Sons of Liberty, so in a sense he covered himself. I'm not really sure what the point was, as it's easily the weakest moment of them the album. The other, Highwayman, is originally by Jimmy Webb and is a country song. Iced Earth have rocked it up a bit, but it still retains its country vibe, and also features several voices including Schaffer as well as guests Russell Allen and Michael Poulsen (Volbeat). This is pretty different for Iced Earth and while not the highlight of the second half, it is perhaps the most interesting moment of the whole release.

While the conceptual section of the album stands as a continuation of the return to form that was Dystopia, serious falloff in the general quality in the second half ultimately drag Plagues of Babylon down to sit more on the level with the two Something Wicked albums that directly preceded Stu Block's arrival; solid, but lacking the complete dominance of works like Night of the Stormrider (1991), Burnt Offerings (1995) or Horror Show (2001). A four star range rating is deserved. At a stretch it is arguably a low-end four and a half, however I can't objectively go that far for an album whose flow is disrupted this badly halfway through.

84/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/iced-earth-plagues-of-babylon-t3290.html)